ST. JOHN’S WOOD MEMORIESJim Larsen

John (Jack) Larsen in Gresham St with Embassy Hall and Mater Dei in background.

My father was John (Jack) Henry Larsen and we lived at 23 Gresham Street. They bought the house in the 1930’s. We were the only Larsen’s living in St. John’s Wood. The house was built by Harold Hodges, who was married to my father’s sister, Signe. Harold Hodges was Dorothy Bayley’s brother. I can vaguely recall a milkman coming around in an old van or perhaps a ute and my mother going out to fill a billy can with milk from a tap at the back of the vehicle. I am guessing that this would have been approximately 1952-1955, so I would have been about 3 or 4 then. I remember my mother saying that the milk used to be delivered by a horse and cart in the early days. I remember the Brisbane City Council steam roller and driver that used to do the sides of the roads before the bitumen went kerb to kerb. He used to park it every afternoon over near the entrance to the Scout Den. The driver was always happy to show the kids how he lit the fire to get it started. This would have been in the early 1950’s. Thinking now, it may have been a diesel roller with a blow lamp start.

Canoeing in the creek using old sheets of galvanized iron made watertight with old bits of road bitumen, melted down in tins over an open fire. The old council concrete mixer (near the present day Scout Den), on the left of the track leading up the hill to the school. The track ran bedside Waterworks Road. The bulldozer that was used to clear the creek (circa 1960’s?) to prevent flooding. We nearly got it started!!

Mum told me during the war that the Americans dynamited a big hole in the creek and made a small dam upstream from the picture theatre to use as a swimming hole. I can never remember actually seeing the swimming hole on the upstream side of the bridge and certainly never swam or fished there. I think that is why my mother told me the story about the dynamite. I guess the hole was long filled with sediment by the mid 1950’s.

I do remember there were always a lot of choko vines growing between the bridge and the Ambassador Theatre and I often took some home for Mum to cook, they tasted awful! We were told we were never allowed to go swimming in the“Blue Hole”, which was in the creek over near Marist Brothers.

I remember walking up the hill every day to the Ashgrove State School with no shoes on my feet. There were air raids trenches to the west of the school above the old quarry. We used to climb up the face of the same quarry using hemp ropes.

The sound coming from the pistol club echoing in the old quarry, at Bennett’s Road at The Gap. Walking up to the top of the mountain behind the Woods and standing on the big flat rock, admiring the view.

I remember going to Hinton’s store at the picture theatre and the back door for access from the theatre at interval time. There were tennis courts next to the theatre. And also Franklin’s shop located over near the bowling club side of St. John’s Wood. Paying 3d (3 pence) to get on the No. 17 Brisbane city council bus, all the way into town.

Cutting down different sized pieces of bamboo for making all sorts of backyard constructions. The leaves from the bamboo made a push bike a motorcycle by inserting them into the back wheel of the bike! We would walk up to the western end of Royal Parade, to the crossing in the creek that led to Greenlanes swimming pool. We even went swimming in the May school holidays, which seems way too cold nowadays. Of course, the slot machines and juke box were an attraction too!

Playing with my brothers and friends in the gutter, outside 23 Gresham Street, with our paper and balsa boats and Dinky cars. We were always waiting for the next wave of water from someone’s sink or bath. No sewers in those days, but we never seemed to catch any infectious diseases or get sick either.

Our parents never seemed to mind where we went after school, just as long as we were home for tea time. Riding my bike from Ashgrove State School over to Ithaca State School to attend the Wood and Metal Work classes at the school.

Claude Mason (Mason’s Jam factory) coming home every night singing “Onwards Christian Soldiers” at full voice. They lived next door to us on the high side.